Hello fellow Gamejamers,

Ludum Dare 48 was my first game jam ever and I really loved it. When I was developing nail-it I wanted to add an online highscore system so that players can compare their scores with others. Unfortunately I didn't find any service that would fit my needs so in the end I didn't implement a leaderboard. I think I wasn't the only one having this issue because most of LD48 games didn't have a leaderboard implemented. After the jam I thought to myself "I will make a highscore service, so anyone can easly implement a leaderboard in their next Ludum Dare game" :wink: . Recently I started working on it and it's finally ready.

I proudly present :drum:

:tada: The Simple Highscore Service! :tada:

It's based on REST API so probably every game engine should handle it. Personally I'm using Unity, so I prepared an example implementation and a live WebGL demo where you can test the service. If you are using other game engine and you implement this service into your game please consider sharing the implementation with others.

The service is totally free and no registation is required. You only need to generate a pair of keys needed for using the API but it takes just about 2 seconds. This service is hosted on free AWS account so I can't guarantee anything :wink:

Please do not abuse the service so everyone can use it without problems (send requests only when it's really needed - not in every game tick :wink: )

(If you consider using this service I suggest testing it before the jam starts)

For more details go to https://www.highscores.ovh - there you will find all you need to start using this service.

Finally, if you decide to use my Simple Highscore Service in your next game, please let me know.

Happy jaming! :smile:

Good morning good evening or what ever time of day you find yourself. I am looking for around 2 artsits to join my team if your intrested please message me at KingOfNova #9334

I'm a lazy piece of poo so that's why this post concerns the previous round, number 2.

I posted about the first round of Theme Voting, and I didn't really give a care about the selection. And it seems that I wasn't the only one; though I do seem to be the most cynical. The second round was a little better; still couldn't really care that much about the themes, but I do know what I could do for "Road trip".

In my previous post, I talked about the noobie's biggest fear entering an accelerated game dev competition, and that is not being able to make something you’re proud of. And I dug my own grave by now having to come up with something else to uphold my promise made in the comments section of that post.

Well, I guess this time, this post will consider something much more real.

(I originally envisioned this post being about ideas, but there's not that much you can do with that, ironically)

The point of a game jam is to finish something, by way of forcing a deadline upon entrants. Many of us have started projects, but not so many of us have finished them. This could be for many reasons:

Maybe it felt like the project is going nowhere and you quit. * Perhaps you've bitten off more than you could chew; or you are/were new to game development, and you didn't fully understand what your project needs.*

You might've gotten stuck up on a particularly minor part of the game, and let yourself get defeated by it.

You encountered a problem that no one could've prepared for, and it seemingly doesn't want to go away.

That last one is where you all (optionally) come in; this is my question for Ludum Dare participants:

What was the most difficult part of development that you hadn't expected? And if it didn't kill your entry, how did you overcome it?

Simple oversights are allowed

It'd be silly if I didn't try to answer this myself (uh-oh)! Seeing as I currently only have a single entry to my username. (of which I intend on doing something special, but only after the jam, as everyone's currently preparing)

I only have one real mini-story to tell: In my entry, the shapes all have random colors, and upon destruction their chunks share the same color. But for whatever reason, it wasn't working at ALL the way I had intended; that was, until I realized I was using the wrong RGB "function", THEN it started working. Story over. Yeah, not very long, is it?

Apologies for being late; I already know my punishment in the form of coming up with another idea, and typing up a full post for later today.

So yeah, like before, I found out this neat little trick where if you beg for responses, you'll get them! And so, with this post, I'd totally like it if you all, you know, made a relevant reply; that'd be great. You can certainly trust you goddamn LIFE in me being able to reply while typing the next post! (sarcasm)

In all seriousness, I'd be interested in any stories; but if there's a bunch of responses, I won't respond as quickly, as I'd rather make one long post as opposed to several small posts. And of course, I'm going to write that next post. Have a great day, everyone..

..not too sure about myself, though.

I feel like stuck in Groundhog Day. Voting round 3 is brings even more themes than round 2, that we see every Ludum Dare in the voting rounds. - One tool, many uses - Summoning - Delay the inevitable - Inconvenient superpowers - Rules can be broken - Mutations - Ruins - Butterfly effect

Come on guys, it's always the same. The slaughter round had such a big potentials this time and we are ending up with nearly the same suggestions every time.

After participating in a new LDs, I sort of like to add a few learning goals on top of completing the game and following the theme.

Sometimes I don't get around to it, and almost definitely won't this time (still up in the air if I'll even submit anything), but I try to keep some challenges in the back of my mind.

After reading about how the ghosts in Pac Man actually have similar, but unique, AI, I wanted to create similar AI opponents who'd have unique behaviors. I accomplished that with Last Bot Standing.

Also, after playing the board game Ninja vs Ninja, I wanted to make a similar strategy game with a somewhat intelligent AI opponent, and have my game support both single and multiplayer. I accomplished that with Dragon Eggs.

There's still a few more challenges I have on my list:

* Smarter AI * Yes I had AI chasing opponents in one game, and a strategic AI in another, but I already have ideas on how I could've made both of theme smarter. I hope I can improve on my AI skills in future jams.

* Map generation * In my mind I have an almost-finished idea of how to generate a Pac-Man style maze, based on some of my own ideas and some map generation tutorials I read. Maybe I'll update or make a sequel to LBS someday, or use it for a different game.

* Achievement System * As I started sharing my games on Newgrounds, I noticed they have a built-in achievement tracking system. I ran out of time to implement it on my last two games (1,2), partially because of time constraints and partially because I wasn't overall satisfied with them anyway, but I want to revisit this

* Online Leaderboards * Pretty much same as the last one, I'd like to have a competitive nature to my games, maybe I such a way that the scoreboards will link to the players LD submissions.

* Multiplayer * I won't make any games without single-player support (because honestly, everyone's likely to play it that way anyway), but I was satisfied with how DE's turned out. I'd also like to take a crack at online multiplayer, but I'm unlikely to ever accomplish that, at least not in LD.

* Memorable Characters * I'd like to actually make games with my own unique, reusable characters, so hopefully frequent jammers will recognize them. Usually the theme requires me to go a bit more generic.

Doest anyone else have personal challenges they've set for themselves?

See the themes that appeared again with attention, between LD48 and LD49. Let's try varied and challenging themes!

Sure took me a long time to think up that title! Anyways, here's what you wanna see:

Here's what you don't wanna see:

I can understand what @majadroid said, that none of the themes this time around are unique in any way. This will pretty much be the middle child of recent Ludum Dare memory, and that doesn't mean the theme should be generic, but isn't it about time ONE of those themes win? I'm not necessarily a big fan of them myself, I'm not encouraging people to root for them, and I definitely don't have anything against the number 49. I love that number, it's luck SQUARED! Well, at least it is in the U.S.

I'll admit that I can get rather carried away with these posts. They're always several paragraphs long, which might not be everyone's cup of tea (psst, I don't like tea). This isn't just limited to Ludum Dare however; this is a problem I have everywhere, even real life, though I'd imagine Twitter would be a different story. But the only reason I would ever consider making a Twitter profile would be to change my Ludum Dare username.

I feel like this post should be fuller, like the previous ones. If I were to make this post shorter, I'd feel lazy. With each of these rounds, I want to make a post containing some question regarding Ludum Dare/General game dev. Problem is, I don't really have all too many questions for the community; I should probably look at some post mortems to help form potential questions, but that sounds ambitious for what amounts to a side activity. It also would no longer feel genuine.

Anyways, here comes question time! This one's a little more generic, however (kinda like this third round):

What feature do you think Ludum Dare needs/will need? (no pressure, Mike)

That could apply to both this site and the event in general. Personally, I'd like to be able to change my damn username!

Apologies for being posted so soon after the previous one, I wanted this to be posted while it's still relevant. Also, there still be none mah themes 'n here.

Probably, at least :)

I realize this is oddly late, but better late than never, right?

присоединяйтесь в дискорд

I've started at LD32, failed and then succeeded on LD 35... (old website)

Have fun, folks!

Gday all,

Some of the early concepts for themes I am throwing around involve a world map and I will use Wonderdraft to make it if so. Part of this tool is a bunch of "stamps" (eg. small lined peaks for mountains which are used to generate mountain ranges, tree shapes for forests etc) which come integrated in the tool, is this allowable within the compo rules? Or is the expectation that you create the individual stamps as well? The tool also has stanalone art stamps (eg. full buildings, pictures etc) which I would assume are clearly outside the spirit but I am not sure on the lower level stamps.

eg. Map from homepage https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hJr62Mhgl2k/W7GGLGSIjYI/AAAAAAAAF1k/OoviekPvQXgjxUWxcp0XJ4r_vUqraUQAgCLcBGAs/s1600/featured-image.jpg

By extension is other black box generators (like village/terrain generators) acceptable? eg. https://watabou.itch.io/village-generator

I am assuming the use of these stamps may fall outside the expectation (and preparing myself to make them if needed) but if integrated tool assets are acceptable then I will be able to take one thing off the big TODO list for the day!

This will be my fifth LD in a row!

It's probably my 10th overall, as I did a few on an old account back in the day. Usually, I use Unity but I've decided to use Phaser this time.

I've been teaching myself the basics of Phaser over the past week and I'm confident that I can get a small, fairly simple game across the line for this LD but I'll still very much be learning as I go... so that should be fun!

Engine: Phaser

Art: Aseprite

Sounds: BFXR

Music: Logic X

Other tools: Tiled, TexturePacker, Trello, Git

Super excited for this one! :smiley: :smiley: :videogame: :videogame: :smiley: :smiley:

I hadn't participated in a game jam for more than a year this time. I'm extremely excited for this jam :D

The themes seem okay so far, really happy with some of them, not so much with others, but that's the nature of jams I guess. Anyways, good luck to anyone participating, really looking forward to this weekend.

I started learning the basics of Unity a few weeks back, now I'm excited to put that knowledge to the test this Saturday!

Best of luck to everyone participating, stoked to see what games come out of this jam.

Hello everyone, this is the third time we participate to LD. We are sure to go ahed with unity but here I'd like to ask you for advice to find a nice source fo audio/fx assets, maybe a tool for creating sounds or some free to use database. We have no real clue on the right path to follow.

PS. Am I the only one that kinda feel that themes are for a big part the same as the last ldjam?

Hey everyone! It will be my third ludum dare and I am super excited to make something new. Recently I started learning websockets and decided post a question: has someone made a multiplayer game for ludum dare? Is it just worth it or not? If someone has such experience please share.

This is going to be the first Game Jam i've ever done. I hope to do well even though my skills in the art department are lacking lol!

Well, I'd glad to work with team as an artist only, but time has come, SOLO JAM! (not compo yet) I'll be use GMS2, wish me luck

This time I invited a artist to participate, hoping to bring a better picture

I had to skip LD48 due to work and family commitments (April is always hectic in our household).

This one will involve some extra juggling to complete as my wife will be away for work so she won’t be able to help with keeping our daughter occupied. So, this time around I’m giving myself a simple goal; make a game with more colours than just grey and include some audio. Basically, try to get a little more than the silent, grey maze I did last time.

As usual, for me, my chosen tools are: Unity, Blender, a potato model laptop set up on a picnic table and in order to be able to have some audio BFXR.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone makes.

Hello! I'm totally new to LD and very excited to try creating something! I'm on the writing and artistic side of things - plenty of creative writing experience, very decent at doodling, but complete newbie in game coding. Anyone out there looking for a team member like this? :) To give you some idea of who I am: big fan of Hollow Knight, Undertale/Deltarune, Journey and such; fluent in English and Russian. Nice to meet you all!

I'm not INCREDIBLY optimistic I'll get it done, but I'm MORE than happy to prove myself wrong this weekend.

This is the jam that boosted my gamedev passion, I used a new engine to me, Construct 3. I would say I'm pretty good at it now, so the obvious choice was to try another engine, and get good at that by making commercial games, mobile games and of course, game jam games!

The tools I'll be using!

𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲: 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗧𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿: 𝗩𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 (𝗩𝗦 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘅) 𝗔𝗿𝘁: 𝗣𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰: 𝗕𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗕𝗼𝘅

𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀: 𝗚𝗶𝘁𝗵𝘂𝗯 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗕𝗦 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻.

That's it! I'm really excited for this one!

Here we go for another happy weekend of hype and despair, mostly in this exact order. So be it! :smile:.

Terra Nova (Ludum Dare 47 - Stuck in a loop)

A Short Tale Of Small Kingdoms (Ludum Dare 38 - A Small World)

Sidereal Lifters Corp (Ludum Dare 37 - One Room)

When the Stars are Right (Ludum Dare 33 - You are the Monster)

Shield Of Eternal Night (Ludum Dare 32 - An Unconventional Weapon)

Chef's Legend (Ludum Dare 31 - Entire Game on One Screen)

Stellarlink Corp (Ludum Dare 30 - Connected Worlds)

HammerHead in the Sea of Monsters (Ludum Dare 29 - Beneath the surface)

Hard Point (Ludum Dare 28 - You only get one)

Mission Luna (Ludum Dare 27 - 10 seconds)

Alien Raid (Ludum Dare 26 - Minimalism)

Moon Rise (Ludum Dare 25 - You are the villain)

Code/Engine: Visual Studio 2019 (C#) / Unity 3D 2021

Art: Krita

3DModel: 3D Coat / Blender

Music: FL Studio 12

My second Ludum Dare, this time my entire dearest dev friends will participates. Shoutout to @bomdiajj and his friend Marcus, first jam i'll make with them.

Once again, I'm in! That's my 4th LD, I will go again for compo, have fun everyone! :D

This is only the second Ludum Dare I've been able to commit to. Let's do this!

Whoa! It's time for another Ludum Dare already? Okay so here we go. This time @sedna and I are partnering up with @tekk, @menta and another cool guy who doesn't have an account here yet.

This time I'm going to focus on art, "marketing", may some web development and stuff as my teammates want to use Unity and I have no experience with it.

Tools

Engine: Unity (in case I contribute code)
Code: Visual Studio Code
2D graphics: Krita, Gimp
3D graphics: Magicavoxel
Audio: Audacity, LMMS
Communication: Discord
OS: Arch Linux with sway :penguin:

Have a great time everyone! :tada:

Hello. Time for another I'm in post that nobody asked for but SCREW YOU, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO STOP ME! This time I'll be participating with 2 other people just like last year.

• Engine: Unity 2020 LTS
• IDE: Visual Studio
• Art: Gimp - I won't be taking care of art this time... again
• Music: Ableton Live - going to try it this time and if not I'll crawl back to LMMS
• *Audio: * Audacity
• Source control: git bash
• Task management: Trello

Info: * *3D/2D: * 3D * *Render pipeline: * URP * *Additional tools: * qASIC - cuz I'm addicted to debug consoles

↑ Screenshot from the last jam

Hey everyone!

I'm Leo, and I do sounds and music. I'm sort of an experienced jammer, so I'll not let you down :) Best - I'd be happy to participate in some narrative game, hyper casual or just weird as hell project :) Also I can do some simple pixel art graphics and animations as a GIF picture above and the first video below :) Just text me in * Discord leokrechmer#7690 * and...

Have a nice jam, everyone! :black_heart:

PS * Here are few examples of my work: *

• * LDJAM games *

• * ITCH.io *

• * GGJ *

• * SoundCloud *

• * Aaaand few videos: *

https://youtu.be/OMXwLl33skA https://youtu.be/XwrgUXsKyP0 https://youtu.be/znFVqeP9TxI https://youtu.be/N741bD9k0Yk https://youtu.be/pPZE1a8Hn24

It's time for another attempt at ludum dare! Let's do this!

If there are still jammers looking for an audio girl, please get in touch, I'd love to help you out!

I’m Danae and I create whimsical fantasy music for games, and conjure up the implementation of that audio into your game as well. I love to create music for narrative games with a fantasy theme, or any other game that would benefit from music in my style (a mix between ambient, orchestral and electronic music). People often describe my music as fantastical and whimsical, some even think it would fit nicely in games as Hollow Knight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox1CHWTb3Vk

Please have a look and listen at my game music showreel or my composition work to see what I have to offer! I also recently worked on the music and audio for Ignis Universia: Awakening of the Erudite Empress.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any question or like to have me on your team! You can find me at Discord as Fae#8918, or on Twitter as da_nae. It’s however good to know that I live in Europe (CEST time zone), so a team located in that region is preferred :).

Getting my template prepared:

• Uses Raylib, compiling for web

• Imgui added, in case I need it

• Used a God of Thunder sprite to test sprite animation, because obviously I have those handy :)

  • See this thing I made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfOji84fZwY

• Adding animated tiles to the baylej's tmx library

  • Original code: https://github.com/baylej/tmx
  • See my fork here: https://github.com/mattj1/tmx/tree/new_features

• Added animated tile rendering to RobLoach's Raylib tiled rendering code

  • Original code: https://github.com/RobLoach/raylib-tmx
  • See my fork here: https://github.com/mattj1/raylib-tmx/tree/new-features

Getting my template prepared:

• Uses Raylib, compiling for web

• Imgui added, in case I need it

• Used a God of Thunder sprite to test sprite animation, because obviously I have those handy :)

  • See this thing I made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfOji84fZwY

• Adding animated tiles to the baylej's tmx library

  • Original code: https://github.com/baylej/tmx
  • See my fork here: https://github.com/mattj1/tmx/tree/new_features

• Added animated tile rendering to RobLoach's Raylib tiled rendering code

  • Original code: https://github.com/RobLoach/raylib-tmx
  • See my fork here: https://github.com/mattj1/raylib-tmx/tree/new-features

Hey everyone! I’m excited to announce that Core is a sponsor for Ludum Dare 49!

• :newspaper: Press Release

Core is a free online game platform and a game creation system, powered by Unreal Engine. It's one of the fastest ways to create and share multiplayer games and experiences. Out of the box you get:

• An easy to use editor built on top of Unreal
• Online multiplayer and chat. No need to write netcode!
• Built in 3D art tools and a terrain editor
• A library of over 20k modifiable assets, all available for free. Music, sounds, artwork, models, and more. Everything you need to make a game.
• Automatic lighting! No need to wait ~25 minutes for a render
• "One-click" publishing
• Player avatars (optional)
• A hungry playerbase looking for things to play
• An enthusiastic community of developers and artists
• Monetization (once you meet some requirements)

If you’ve never made a game before, you can start with one of their many templates for genres like Deathmatch Shooter or RPG. The templates come in different perspectives too: Third person, first person, or top down. More experienced developers can heavily customize those templates, or build something from scratch using Lua.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1eGFmAa_1E

To learn more, visit coregames.com.

Seriously, check out that documentation

No joke, I was really impressed by Core’s documentation, so let’s start there.

https://docs.coregames.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rIbd612sUM

Besides Lua guides and API documentation, some of the first articles you come across are how to use Core in game jams, and how to use Core if you’re familiar with Unity.

https://docs.coregames.com/references/globalgamejam/

https://docs.coregames.com/other_platforms/unity/

Sharing your game is a simple matter of clicking Publish. Enter some details about your game, then it works a lot like Unity in that you pick what scenes to include. After that you’re given a link you can share, perfect for submitting your game to Ludum Dare.

https://docs.coregames.com/getting_started/publishing/

Next is what really impressed me: their best practices articles on making backups, collaborating, and using Core with GitHub.

https://docs.coregames.com/getting_started/backups/

https://docs.coregames.com/references/collaboration/

https://docs.coregames.com/tutorials/github/

Git is a serious developers tool for backing up and sharing your code. It’s not something I would have expected in an accessible game creation tool’s documentation, but Git and GitHub really are some of the best tools for backups, no matter what you make games with.

Finally, if you want to know how monetization works, check out their perks program.

https://docs.coregames.com/references/perks/program/

Several folks have already found big success using Core. Check out some success stories here:

https://medium.com/core-games/creators-on-core-see-financial-success-4a75f169e06f

That about sums up what Core development looks like.

I highly recommend setting aside a few hours to familiarize yourself with Core, and see if it’s right for you. It really surprised me, which is why I’m excited to share it. If your game concept would benefit from online multiplayer, avatars, or one of their genre templates, I think it’s seriously worth considering. There’s a great many tutorials, extensive documentation, and a full suite of online courses you can take, all for free.

https://learn.coregames.com/

How do you make art and assets?

This is one of the unique parts of Core: Everything you use to make games in Core is built inside Core. You’re not importing 3D models, but rather you’re using assets provided by Core, assets provided by the Community Content library, or creating them yourself out of primitives. I would have called it “compound objects”, but Core calls it “kitbashing”, which is an amusing yet appropriate term I’d not heard before.

I highly recommend reading this article from Dan Fessler, art director on Core, on why they went this direction.

https://medium.com/core-games/art-directing-the-multiverse-manticore-games-41bc02804010

So sure, you might not have Blender or 3DS Max at your disposal, but folks have created some really impressive things with Core. Here are some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqf07TSOz0w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVmWbcka9Mk

You can see more skillful “kitbashing” in Core’s recent collaboration with deadmau5. Together they challenged the community to create dystopian worlds. The winning world will be featured in deadmau5’s upcoming music video.

https://medium.com/core-games/deadmau5-x-core-collab-jam-best-dystopian-worlds-505fc073183a

To learn more about creating art in Core, check out the art reference article. I also like this tutorial on modelling basics that teaches you how to make a syrupy stack of pancakes. :yum: :pancakes:

https://docs.coregames.com/references/art/

https://docs.coregames.com/tutorials/modeling_basics/

Compo, Graphics, and Audio ratings

Core is a unique tool that helps you make games faster by not requiring you to make art assets. That said, Ludum Dare has a history of encouraging you to “make everything from scratch”, so when making and submitting your Core game, you should keep these in mind:

• When submitting, select the “Jam”, not the “Compo”. The Compo is our “hardcore solo everything from scratch” category. Core doesn’t let you work entirely from scratch in a way that is fair to other Compo participants, but the “Jam” category is open to everyone.

• When submitting, you should opt-out of both the Graphics and the Audio categories. Again, Core limits what you can do from scratch. While it is possible to create original art assets by combining primitives (kitbashing), one of the big advantages of Core is that you have this massive library of content available to you. Make the most of it!

Wrap-up

That about sums things up. A big thanks to Core for sponsoring Ludum Dare.

To get started, grab Core for free from the Epic Game Store.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/core

This'll be my 4th LD, and looking forward to it.

Getting Unity and VS up-to-date, not going to bother with doing a web build this time since it never seems to work 😾

Getting excited for the weekend. This time I'll be using Godot instead of Unity. Only experience I have with it is doing a small game last weekend so we'll see how that goes... :laughing:

i am in your mouth with deez nuts

This'll be my first LD Jam and I'm SO EXCITED! It'll be a blast with a great team! :smile:

I'm in! I've not entered an LD and submitted a g ame since the old website was in use. Back then I was still finding my feet in C++ so would submit games in Java (using a framework I was used to). Now I'm confident in C++ and even have a set of tools built around SFML to use during the game jam! Below is my tools list:

Art: Paint.NET or Aseprite (depending on insinct)

IDE: Visual Studio

Programming Lang: C++

Engine/API: Custom built with SFML

Source Control: Gitlab

Music: Bosca Ceoil / BeepComp

SFX: BFXR

Level Design Tool: Tiled (if tiled maps are required)

I'm not very good at art, but that's keeping with the spirit of LD I feel so I'm happy to submit my poor programmer art games! I've usually entered with a team but this time I feel like going it alone in the LD48. Hopefully I can find some scope to submit some trippy shaders in a game :peace:

I already got a concept in mind, its going to be interesting how I can marry it to the theme.

Yet again, Titled Goose Team is assembling this Ludum Dare to have a lot of fun. And yet again, it has a little bit different composition, however, it haven't changed since GMTK Jam 2021, almost.

Team

• Artyom "Tricky Fat Cat" Volkov (@tricky-fat-cat) — programming, game design;

• Sava T (@sava-tsurkanu) — music and sounds;

• Ruslan Seferbekov (@justcreative) — level design, game design;

• Daniil Morozov (@onlymorozov) — 3D artist;

• Grigorij "Syntheslav" Markov (@krik-iddqd) — music and sounds;

• Vitalii Kuznetsov (@astramorae) — level design, game design; (FIRST GAME JAM EVER!)

Project

This is the Autumn event, and it means that our team, yet again, is going to go rogue and do whatever we want. There is some business have to be done, for the third time. And we hope that we will manage to deliver our best game!

Good luck every one, and have fun!

Hey all, I've done a bunch of mini-LDs, but this is my first Big One.

I've got a few concepts rearing, so can't wait to see what the theme is, and if it will fit. Otherwise, I got my ideation toolkit handy, and hopefully come up with something nice and brand new.

I'll be using my usual array of Godot, Blender, Krita (plus Wacom tablet), and freesounds.org + bfxr.

Good luck to everyone attending, and it will be interesting to know who from the South West of England is attending :slight_smile:

So,yeah I'm in again! 5th time! Excited as always!

But let me ask you something I've always wondered about this rule:

You’re free to use any tools or libraries to create your game. You’re free to start with any base-code you may have.

What's your opinion on Base Code? How large is your base code? What libraries do you use? What can or should I put in there? How much is too much?

Thinking a lot about this lately. Haven't used any base code until now. But when I think about it, for example, I always need to code a 2D-Vector/Map to manage tiles, or some procgen code which is always quite similar. Or player input and movement. Or AI code? But maybe some shaders would also be useful? A start screen with a simple menu or scene transition code?

But where should I draw the line? I hope you don't mind asking, but it's something I always wondered...

Years ago I created the Godot Project Starter. It's a pre-created Godot Engine project that comes with what I think of as the essentials for any game. I've recently updated it to improve scene layouts, configurability and performance. And so I offer it again to all Godoters (Godotians?) to use for any game jam or other project they want to get off the ground quickly!

You can download it from the github repo page: https://github.com/jhlothamer/godotprojectstarter

The github repo page lists what comes with the starter project and instruction on how to use it.

But if your more in the mood for a video about it, I've got ya' covered!

Godot Project Starter

I also made a helper pack with even more useful utilities and components. You can checkout the github page for that here: https://github.com/jhlothamer/godothelperpack

Happy jamming, everyone!

If I counted correctly, this will be my 23rd Ludum Dare, whoa!
LD has always been an amazing experience all these years and has accompanied me through my whole career in gamedev from humble beginnings through a job at an awesome indie studio to my upcoming adventure as a solo indie dev and I'm beyond grateful for that! <3
Really looking forward to jam together with my buddy @guckstift again this time around! (though we might each make a game of our own, we'll see)
See you all this weekend and on the other side, it's gonna be a awesome!

Hey there,

Music man searching for cute game designer here. Send nudes (and by that I mean your rawest code).

Anyway, if you need someone to make music for you, I can be your guy. (and maybe even sfx if I have the time)

Here is an old Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/pl4typus-dude

For the boys who know a bit about music : I hope to try to learn a bit more about mastering through this event. Besides, I'd like to work with FM synthesis on basic synths like Ableton's Operator. Also I'd maybe try to have jazzy chord progression here and there, and/or more ambient works. I listen a lot to Brian Eno's works these days, and Lorenzo Senni. (Warp record fanboy here). Finally, if i can blend some synths and acoustic insturments too (like flute, vibraphone, marimbas, trumpets), it'd be a win for me. I loved the arrangements on Link's Awakening's Switch remake's OST. Also I love works by Lena Raine.

So hyped to join this ludum dare, the last one I did, I was a 1st year student in game design, now i'm graduated I'll do my very best ! ENJOY

I'm definitely going to be joining this time around as well. Usually I use Phaser as my core framework, but I've been learning about the Godot Engine recently and feel confident enough that I can use that and learn the stuff I don't know as I go, so Godot will be number 3 on my list of game engines that I've used in a Ludum Dare. Best of luck to everybody out there and don't forget to have fun!

I am suuuupeeer excited for LD49! Can't wait to get caffeine overdose while working 24/7 for 3 days straight. This is going to be AWESOME. Good luck, everyone!

I'm going to make my game in K this weekend, using oK/iKe.

So... I needed to give myself a quick tutorial on the system. Turns out it's pretty RAD!

Here's a link to the recording on twitch:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1161556821

Screenshot of what I managed in about 90 mins:

Skipped out on ld48 just because I hated that theme but this year from the themes ive seen popular its going to be good on alt since school

Hi, I am a newly graduated Game Designer and with my friend (newly graduated programmer) we are searching for a graphic designer for the next ludum dare so we can make an awesome game ! We don't know what type of game we will be making so the best would be someone who does a little bit of everything, if you are interested send me your portfolio on my Email written in my profile.

We live in France for the time zone ! It would be our first Ludum Dare (but no first game jam) so we are very excited !

I'm joining with my usual team @adorikill, @jmen-balec and @hadrien! :heart:

I have started joining LD events from time to time 6/7 years ago, and since I have graduated from engineering school and got a job at JetBrains! All the time spent with friends in LDs is invaluable and it is also a nice experience. I hope we all keep the flame burning :v:

For this LD I will use Bevy engine and Rust for the first time :-) Along with usual tools IntelliJ IDEA & Aseprite :wink:

Have a nice game jam everyone

I’m looking to join on a team for the upcoming Ludum Dare. I’ve got a history of writing experience, including some on an upcoming game (you can see that all on my profile.)

Godot, aseprite, sfxr, let's go.

Not taken part in Ludum Dare in a while and even longer since I actually finished during the event. Gonna really do my best this weekend to make something. Goal is to work on something for original Playstation 1 hardware. So I'm going to get a basic 3D framework working over the next few nights so I can hit the ground running with a real game on Saturday.

After 6 jams it's time to try the compo.

Hey everyone! Many people are into game dev but claim that they aren't very familiar or strong at the programming side. I can program and I love to teach so, I'm making a game dev series on youtube! It'll actually be several playlist but but the playlists will be independent parts of a whole.I'm not an artist so they arent pretty but they are informative. It's also my first attempt so let me know if I confuse anyone.

I know I only finished one play list thats the bignner level of programming but i wanted to post this before the game jam. The rest are to come.

Playlists: - 1) object oriented programming - beginner Learn the basics to programming. Still very useful by itself for learning game dev but may be a little difficult to make the connection without more help. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLosXpbuDBmknsxcI8Zz7tGwt9-9vyWsc_ - 2)object oriented programming - intermediate Get a deeper understanding of objects and learn more programming concepts TBD - 3) object oriented programming - advanced TBD (if at all) maybe networking, learning about files etc. - 4) game development - beginner (Godot and some Unity) learn the concepts of game development and how the different engines are similar and how they contrast TBD - 5) game development - intermediate (Godot) dive deeper with a 3D game making a Rubiks cube TBD - 6) game development - advanced TBD

Gonna try for the Compo again, hoping for a good final round of theme voting. I'll be using Godot, Blender, GIMP and/or Piskel, SFXR, beepbox.co and/or Audacity.

Tomorrow I have small and not that important surgery, if I can recover before weekend I will aim compo once again!

First time participating, absolutely psyched for this!

Missed LD48 because I took part in a game jam only a week prior, and I haven't done one since, so I'm gonna be incredibly rusty. Fortunately I also took time off for days after this one so if in the event I don't finish the compo, I can use one of my days off for the jam.

I'll be using my own framework, as I usually do. For assets I no longer have Photoshop as I replaced it with Photopea several months ago. Sound effects will likely be BFXR, Chiptone, or Sfxia, and music will be done with LMMS.

Not sure what my goals will be, LD47 went so well for me that it'd be difficult to top. For the time being I'm making sure my little template/boilerplate program is working, as well as all the features both old and new are all working as expected.

I'll probably be using Unity and Musescore + Audacity to program and make sounds and music stuff. My cohorts will be using piskel for art and, of course, trusty Google Docs for design. Good luck to all, and here's to a good Jam weekend!

Lockdown coding!! I will be using Unity, Gimp2, Blender (if i go 3d). Best of luck to everyone joining - fingers crossed we get a good theme :)

I've never tried doing Ludum Dare with anyone else working in engine. This time I have at least 4, so I'm not sure if our game will end up being great or a total mess. Either way it's going to be fun (I mean the experience, we'll see about the game).

Hi, all! With all 3 preliminary rounds of Theme voting live, I wanted to lead a little discussion about what makes an interesting theme for a Game Jam and how to identify a good or bad one. I've personally identified 3 conditions I look for when voting for themes, each building upon the previous:

1. First and foremost, a theme must be accomplishable in a short period. This includes themes that hint at complicated, difficult mechanics like anything with significant RPG elements, enemy AI, etc. But more subtly, many themes almost entirely suggest story elements rather than mechanics, which can create a roadblock for less skilled developers and/or those on smaller/solo teams. Keep in mind that most completed game jam games take the form of simple arcade-like games based more on some single mechanic than on any amount of content, which takes additional time to make. For any developer working in a short period of time, mechanics must always take priority over theme/story, and theme choice should reflect that. "Automation," for example (suggested in this year's voting) is really fun in games (speaking as someone who loves playing Space Engineers, Minecraft, etc) but would be extremely difficult for most people to implement in a single weekend in my opinion.

2. In a Jam like LD, the event doesn't end when we submit our games. We spend a single weekend making our game, but the next two weeks playing games! Thus, it is essential that a theme produce games which are not just fun to make but also enjoyable to play. It is not uncommon to see some themes that emphasize heavy restrictions like "single button input" or "losing control." While it may be fun to program a game with some of these restrictions, they might not actually be fun to play, like if Call of Duty made you spend more time searching for ammo than actually shooting.

3. Regardless of how fun a game made from a given theme may be, Ludum Dare isn't just about making and playing a single game--by the end of the jam, a dedicated community member may play dozens and dozens of other games! This means that not just quality but also variety are important! The question that should be asked when considering a theme should be not "can I make a fun game out of this?" but "can the wider community make a diverse variety of fun games out of this?" A theme like "projectiles with recoil" can make a fun game but in a broader theme will likely mean the same game idea made over and over again. I particularly love themes with a homonym, meaning a single word with multiple possible meanings. Words like "power" for example, can hint at political power, physical strength, electricity, and more! (Though I do think this year's theme suggestion of "you are the power source" is a little restrictive because it describes mechanics). One-word themes are always my favorite because they are by nature vague enough to have lots of possible tie-ins and don't restrict you mechanically.

Some of my favorites are: 1. Sanctuary: Can refer to either a church or a generically safe place (multiple interpretations). The "safe place" idea is something widely applicable in game design but does not restrict mechanically. I can see this one going a lot of different ways.

1. Reflection: Could be a mirror reflecting light or images. Could be physical surfaces reflecting balls, projectiles, or more.

2. Strength in Numbers: "Strength" and "Numbers" can both be interpreted tons of creative ways!

Otherwise, almost any of the one-word themes.

But that all said... we all know good and well that it wouldn't be LD without complaining about a terrible theme and being forced to come up with an idea anyway, so I wish everyone the best no matter what is voted through!

What are y'all's thoughts on the subject?

Check me out on Twitter at https://twitter.com/wingman_gaming to see my long-term project Call of the Stars, a survival game about building civilizations!

I haven't used Godot at all. Any tips or resources are welcome!!

We have a fair bit of ambition for this run of LD. Is our current team perfect? No, absolutely not. But.

BUT!!!

We can get a whole lot closer if we can find a 2D artist!

If you happen to be someone with a 2d skillset, let us the f* know!

Sergey

Decided that learning Unreal was fun in the last jam I did, so I'm going to take the same approach and learn Godot this time around!

Please, please can we do Orbital as the game theme? I would love to revisit a game I wrote but couldn't publish and it makes me sad every time I think about it. I was so excited to show it to you all, you can read it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/orbitum-scaterum

It was from LD42, so a while back, but doing orbital, and getting to revisit this game would mean the world to me.

This weekend, I am going to make a game. At the moment, I am just working by myself, and will be trying to be done by Sunday afternoon. If I can do that, then I will submit to the compo. Otherwise, or if others would be interested in helping me, I will submit to the jam, as I usually do.

Haven't entirely decided what tools I'm going to go with just yet. Probably Unity again, since that is still what I have the most familiarity with. Probably like 2018 so as to not have to deal with all the new render pipeline stuff. I might also look into using some simple C/C++-based framework like Allegro. I haven't used it in a while, so I'd have to have a look through the docs and re-familiarize with it. I would like to keep things as simple as possible, so a 2D game is more likely. Something 3D in, say, UE4 or something where I could just block out a bunch of levels might be interesting, though.

I will also (hopefully, if the adapter I've ordered shows up in time) use the Cintiq I just got off a friend recently, and use either ProMotion or Grafx to do some sprite graphics. Really looking forward to this part.

Going to avoid Audacity for this one, even though it is free and I am familiar with it. Here's why. I'll see if I can get Reaper working for me before things start up.

Happy Jamming, Y'all!

Hopefully I'm posting this properly :p This will be my first 48 hour game jam, and I have taken off work for the weekend. I've previously participated in week-long game jams, but this will be the first with a more serious time crunch. I will be posting my progress on my website, and I will also be writing up a post-mortem when I finish!

https://nate601.me

It has been a while since I opened a game engine.. Always having an idea but never having the time has to stop! And good heavens! A buddy asked if I would like to join him in this jam journey! It's the perfect opportunity to get building games going again! A lot of luck and creative fibes to everyone! I saw a ton of fun games from last year, so keep up the good work! And special thanks to @wouter52 for inviting me!

Hi guys, our team of 2( an artist and a programmer) is searching for some more people, who speak Russian or German

Excited for my 7th Ludum dare. Doing a solo Jam entry this time in my own weird WIP toolkit that will hopefully be ready enough to share come next jam. I'll try and finish up in 48 hours and work from scratch anyway, but leave myself some leeway to get outdoors and get some fresh air this weekend before heading back to my web dev grind life next week.

Hello, LD49! It's my first time to participate in this GameJam. Hope our team will have fun in this Jam.

Here at Brinegamers Productions, we strive to create great games. We are ready for whatever Ludum Dare 49 throws at us! It's going to be our third Ludum Dare. Second with a team (First LDJam was solo, CEO participated). We cannot wait!

Saw Lurum Dare was coming up and I saw a good opportunity to learn a bit more Unity with it (main engine is GMS2). It's not really my first game jam though, I tried to participate on another Brazilian game jam in 2019 but due to external reasons I had to drop out of it.

Also looking for a small team to work with me! Mainly a sound designer/musician, but an artist would really help a lot too! If you want to join me, contact me via Discord: arthurgps2#2697

Good luck for everyone!

Looking forward to making my 3rd ludum dare entry. Could anyone tell me when the final round voting starts?

After using LD48 to brush the dust off my own Vulkan OpenXR engine and more recently using Godot for Terry's stop waiting for Godot jam I think I'll be using one of the two likely Godot to jam a quick thing this weekend on YT.

Looking forward to the fun.

Just realized I never posted my Third Round votes, so here you go:

This whole round just seems kind of "meh" to me. There are too many themes that I don't like but would be fine with if they were the theme (because that's the fun of Ludum Dare, we all complain about the themes but make games and enjoy it in the end anyway).

I'm also hoping that "One tool, many uses" isn't the theme, because I just know that I'd be tempted to make a game about a serial killer whose trademark style is always using the same weapon!

After not participating on LD48, im back for another compo.

Previously, i did a compo and a jam entry on 41, compo on 42-43, two jam entries on 44 (one failed), compo again on 45, compo and jam again on 46 and only jam on 47!

Maybe if a team requires something i can do while i do my compo entry, maybe i can do another jam entry as well?

Engine: Unity Code: C#/Visual Studio Graphics: Aseprite Audio: FL Studio

Long time no jam, this will be my 3rd(?) LD. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing but of course that has never dissuaded me before, so why start now?

Probably, this will be a suitably dinky browser game, quite possibly in JS / Phaser- let's see!

This will be my 8th LudumDare (This is a new account)

For the first time, I will use Unity!

[Post obsolete]

Hey, some themes aren't so bad this time around!

Also, wouldn't the final round had already started with two days left to the start in previous Ludum Dares?

I've never done a game jam before, so really throwing myself into the fire to try out the comp, haha. Gonna be using Unity and probably Adobe Illustrator, my standard toolset. Hoping it goes well.

Good luck folks!

Maybe something simple if the theme sparks an idea, very busy weekend unfortunately.

One of the adivce I always give to newcomers is start early

Well, you're limited to how much you can actually do, but here's some things that you can do to be successful:

The final theme voting round is coming up. As soon as it does, vote for your favorite categories, and brainstorm on as many ideas as you can that fit into those. It's extra helpful if you can come up with single ideas that meet multiple themes:

i.e I have an idea for a game that can follow the themes of "On/Off", "Automation", "Switching Perspectives", "You are the power source", "Control the Environment", "Delivery", "Missing Parts", "Making Connections", and "Out of Order", It won't be the exact game no matter what theme is chosen, but so many core mechanics are shared that I at least have a good starting point on my design.

For a previous game of mine, I already had a desire to make a board game with an AI-controlled opponent. When the theme "Keep It Alive" was chosen, my design was tweaked to include an egg you had to protect.

I recommend starting a text file and fill it with as many ideas as you can (and keep this file for future jams, you might want to use some of those ideas later!).

This much at least you can do during both the Jam and Compo, but there's even more you can do with the Jam:

Per the rules, you're allowed to start with any base code you have. You could start working on mechanics (ie if you already know your game will likely be a platformer, put together some movement scripts). I personally don't like to do core mechanics programming ahead of time, but technically it is allowed.

What I do are get started on the basic quaility-of-life stuff. A stand-in title screen, audio manager, playerprefs manager, pause and quit manager, things that I feel any game I make will need, but will likely be lost to time. I even put together some pre-made assets (1,2) for anyone who'll be helped by them.

Even having those type of minor things ready to copy prevent wasted time.

Here we go again!

I'm always looking forward to the next Ludum Dare, I have fun doing the compo every time and I'm sure this time won't be any different.

I'll make use of the FTE Quakeworld engine, Blender, GIMP, Audacity and Sunvox for sure once again, this time I might be able to target web as the primary platform which makes life easier for anyone rating.

With our historic 48th event behind us, so begins the next era of Ludum Dare. Welcome to Ludum Dare 49!

Final Round Theme Voting has begun

Cast your vote here: :ballot_box: /events/ludum-dare/49/theme

For rules and other info, visit the event page here: :trophy: /events/ludum-dare/49

If you don't want to figure out timezones, the theme announcement is when the clock (top-right) reaches zero.

TIP: The ldjam.com website slows down right before the Theme Announcement. We highly recommend you follow the official Twitter account, and sign-up for the E-mail Newsletter, just in case.

Summary of things to know: PLEASE READ

There are a lot of things to share this time around. Here's a bullet points list:

• Ludum Dare 49 is a regular Jam and Compo event
• Ludum Dare 49 starts early! October 1st at 3 PM PDT, 6 PM EDT, 10 PM UTC (22:00)
• Ludum Dare 49 ends early! Thursday October 21st! That's in just over 2 weeks, instead of the usual 3 weeks.
  • We're planning to try something special for the results. Stay tuned!
• Twitch brought back the Game Development category! Now called Software and Game Development. Use it!
  • Be sure to include the Ludum Dare tag.
  • There's a Game Development tag as well.
• Sign up for the email newsletter! We're shutting down the old Google Groups mailing list after LD49.
• We have a privacy policy and terms of service now (see footer). Check them out! Share feedback here.
• We are sponsored! Big thanks to Intel, GameMaker Studio 2, and Core for sponsoring Ludum Dare!
  • If you're commercializing an indie game, definitely check out the Intel Game Dev Boost. program.
  • Check out GameMaker Studio 2! One of the most popular & easiest ways to make 2D games. Get started
  • Update: Yes you are eligible to enter your Ludum Dare 49 games in this contest.
  • Check out Core! One of the fastest & easiest ways to make AAA qualty 3D multiplayer games. Get started
• Ludum Deals are back! Highlights include:
  • Free temporary GameMaker Studio 2 license with Desktop and Web exporting. :confetti_ball:
  • 20% off GMLive add-on (GameMaker Studio 2).
  • Full version of Construct 3 is free to use during Ludum Dare 49.
  • And more
• We're hiring! If you're a developer in Canada with PHP, JavaScript, and other skills—if you like remote work, health benefits, and flexible 30 hour weeks—if working on Ludum Dare and related projects interest you, check it out!

Keynote, hosted by Jupiter Hadley

This time I asked Jupiter Hadley to keynote. Not originally a game developer, but we first discovered her years ago when she started posting YouTube videos of her playing HUNDREDS of Ludum Dare games. Back then it was rare to catch anyone playing jam games on YouTube, and unheard of to see so many. Without a doubt, what she did inspired many people to continue in games, which in turn inspired her to continue as well. Here's Jupiter to tell her story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_IFDFYr3Dc

Thanks Jupiter for doing this, and thanks again for everything you do. :slight_smile:

Thank you to our Sponsors

We're thrilled to have 3 great sponsors for this event. Their support is enabling us to do some truly exciting things over the next few months. I can't wait to tell you all about them. :slight_smile:

Sponsored by: Intel

A big thanks to Intel for sponsoring Ludum Dare 49!

Check out the Intel Game Dev Boost program to do more with your games. More details can be found here.

Sponsored by: GameMaker Studio 2

A big thank you to GameMaker Studio 2 for sponsoring Ludum Dare 49!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JZAAbyUNsQ

We have temporary license keys available that give you full access to exporting for the Desktop and the Web, and we've collected some getting started resources here.

Finally, shout-out to Shaun Spalding (@shaunjs) for sharing his advice on using GameMaker Studio 2 in Ludum Dare.

UPDATE: YoYo Games just announced an additional contest you can enter your GameMaker games in

Sponsored by: Core

This came through at the last minute! Please check them out! A big thank you to Core for sponsoring Ludum Dare 49!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwN5cpsIG2g

Core is a fascinating game creation system that redefines how we make 3D online multiplayer games. It's beginner friendly, fast to iterate, and mature enough that professionals should take it seriously. I feel like this might become the tool of choice for some solo Jammers. Check-out my extended resources breakdown here.

Thank you (yes you) for being a part of this!

Thank you everyone for joining and sticking with us for the past 19 years. Thank you for being a part of this insane experiment started by a bunch of crazy internet friends. Thank you for putting up with me, your host and caretaker for over a decade.

Ludum Dare has been an obsession of mine for half my life. I was 21 when we started, and I'm 41 now. Growing up, I always hoped I'd be known for a game I created. I never expected to have a front row seat to a movement that would go on to change game development forever. Thank you for coming along with me on this journey, and I can't wait to see where it takes us next.

I owe another big thank you to our sponsors. Until a few months ago, I had never worked with sponsors before. I'm immensely grateful these companies had the patience to work with me. I invite you to please check them out to thank them for believing in us. Their support has gone a long way towards enabling us to grow the team and invest into making Ludum Dare even better.

I wish you all the best this weekend. I also invite you come back next year, April 1st-4th, to celebrate Ludum Dare's 20th anniversary with us.

- Mike Kasprzak, the "Ludum Dare guy"

Wrap-up

Thanks for reading! We will see you Friday with the Theme Announcement.

I've been developing games for quite long now but never participated in a game jam, lately i found joy in doing C++ and SFML, does anyone have advices/suggestions for me? Should I just fall back to generic game engines to avoid exporting issues?

It's been many years since the last time I joined a compo.
I'm excited and a bit nervous to try this again, but I swear that I'll give my best, both making and testing/voting games.

Last time I used AS3/Flash, this time it's gonna be JavaScript or Unity (I'm not sure yet).
I'm a programmer, so Programmer Art is the way for me.
For sound effects, SFXR (jsfxr or usfxr), of course!! =D
If I manage to find the time, I'll try using BeepBox for music.